Apparatus for making cold bonded electrical composite contacts



United States Patent [72] Inventor Childress B. Gwyn, Jr.

Wethersi'ield, Conn. [2]] Appl. No. 641,342 [22] Filed May 25,1967 [45] Patented Dec. 15, 1970 [73] Assignee Contacts Incorporated Wethersi'ield, Conn.

[54] APPARATUS FOR MAKING COLD BONDED ELECTRICAL COMPOSITE CONTACTS 10 Claims, 13 Drawing Figs. [52] U.S.C1 10/13127, 10/27; 29/203, 29/4701, 29/630; 83[200; 219/57, 219/58 2 19 /101,219/157; 228/5, 228/6 [51 Int. Cl B23k 21/00, 2. 1 3/ 9 [50] Field of Search 29/630C, 470.1, 203(All): 10/13, 27; 228/3, 5, 6; 219/57, 79, 80,56,57, 101, 156, 157; 83/925,200 199; 93/1 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,786,217 3/1957 Johnson 10/13 2,813,279 11/1957 Friedman 10/27 3,371,414 3/1968 Gwyn,Jr. 29/4701 3,397,454 8/1968 Gwyn, Jr. 228/3X G F e o Primary Examiner-John F. Campbell Assistant ExaminerRobert W. Church Attorney-Mam and Jangarathis ABSTRACT: This disclosure relates to an apparatus for forming composite electrical contact elements and, more particularly, to an apparatus for the manufacture of integrally bonded contacts, each comprising a contact working face and a contact body portion, in a rotating mechanism. The two components to be bonded are aligned in end-to-end abutting relation within a first rotating assembly and, preferably within 0.01 to 0.5 seconds after shearing such components from their wire or stock material, are transferred to a second rotating assembly and subjected to a forming blow of sufficient intensity to produce interfacial molecular bonding therebetween. Subsequent heading blows in the second assembly finally shape the contact and improve the bond. The preferred apparatus of the disclosure is capable of producing in excess of 600 of such contacts per minute.

PATENTED DEC 1 5 I976 SHEET 1 BF 7 ATTORNEYS PATENTED nun 519m SHEET 2 [IF 7 Fig. 3.

INVENTOR. Childress B. Gwyn, Jr.

ATTORNEYS PATENTED 0am 51am Shim-{L334 SHEET 3 [IF 7 IN VEN TOR.

Childress B. Gwyn, Jr. BY

7 m 61 Mm ATTORNEYS PATENTEB 0321 51am SHEEI 0F 7 INVENTOR. Childress B. Gwyn, Jr.

A MHHIII ATTORNEYS PATENTEEHEEI 5mm 3.547334 SHEET 5 0F 7 IN VEN TOR.

Fig.6

ATTORNEYS Childress B. GwynQJr.

INVENTOR. F 9 Childress B. Gwyn, Jr.

mayo/" m ATTORNEYS APPARATUS FOR MAKING COLD BONDED 1 ELECTRICAL COMPOSITE-CONTACTS BACKGROUND or ran iNveNrioN a Many methods have previously been 'proposed for the .manufacture of compositeelectrical contact elements. The

earliest of such-proposals involved relatively complex opera- .tions such as brazing, welding, puddling, or. the like, and

required sequential manipulation of several components for each composite contact element to be manufactured, e.g. a silvercontact face component, a steel or copper contact body component, and a suitable soldering or brazing medium.'Such procedures also generally required additional operations for finishing and'sizing'the composite contact formed to meet dimensional specifications. Frequently, electroplating was also required. lllustrative of :such earlier procedures are those disclosed in my-prior U.S.Pat. Nos. 2,049,771 and 2,199,241.

More recently, severalprocedures for-forming composite contact elements by cold heading operations have been described in the literature. ()ne such method, disclosed in Cooney U.S. Pat. No.-2,739,369 granted on Mar. 27, 1956, involves the cold-heading of components which may, for example, be in the form'of wire elements, within an open die. Two

' pairs of such elements are subjected to asingle forming blow,

employing the respective pairs as anvils' for mutual expansion of the individual elements of 'the'opposingpair of elements, the individual elements thereby'bonding to one another at a numberof individual metallically bonded spots. Commercial contaminants, to a precious metal contact face slug, which is initially confined topresent a free end-engaging the wire section. The patent teaches applyirig'upsetting pressure axially of the pair of components'while simultaneously progressively releasing the'precious'metal slug from'confinement to expand the abutting endsof the components intoan open die cavity.

The known methods of manufacturing composite contacts by cold forming, including those of Cooney and Zysk, all require a thorough cleaning of at leastjone, and preferably each of the components to be bonded. This cleaning is required so as to remove absorbed gas molecules on the surface of the component to be bonded, as well as any gross contaminants or oxides which may also havebeen formed thereon. Often, however, the cleaning is not sufficient to render the componentsurface sufficiently nascent to achieve a satisfactory bond. The resulting contacts,-therefore', do not possess sufficient shearstrength to permit prolonged operation when subjected to them'echanical and electrical stresses accompanying use.

A metal surface is most nascent immediately after being sheared from'stock. Accordingly, if components can be cold bonded immediately after shearing from stock, the incidence of absorption and oxidation on the bonding surface will be minimized, and there can be achieved a metallurgical-or molecular bond of exceptionally high shear strength.

The cold bonding of abutting elements without prior clean-- ing andimmediately after-shearing from stock material has been suggested-in. a patent 'to Rozmus, US. Pat. No. 3,l06,013. This patent, however, relatesto a procedure in which a pair of such elements is bonded within an open die cavity, the bonding being limited'to the extent of the projec tions of the respective elements into such cavity, and being accompanied by thefermation of flash material peripherally of the cold bonded workpieces. Suchflash material must composite bonded electrical fmake-and-break contacts by means of cold bonding and/or electrical'welding. Maximum economy requires a satisfactory method to provide for feeding the contact components from continuous wire materials, accurately cutting of shearing segments of preselected lengths from such wires, positioning the segments, integrally cold bonding of welding the same together}, and simultaneously or subsequently shaping the composite element to the required dimensions. v

These problems are to a certain extent eliminated in my prior art, but more recent U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,965, wherein a header assembly is proposed including a feed die disposed adjacent a shear plane which includes two longitudinally extending wire feed passages for feeding the two wire stock materials into a single passage in a cutter bar. At thefirst wire feed passage, the cutter bar receives a predetermined amount of contact face material and, being pivotally mounted, shears this off in a first movement, which brings it to the second feed passage. it there receives a predetermined amount of contact body material, and this is sheared from the stock by a second movement. The latter movement brings the passage in the cutter bar into'registration with a forming die, and a blow from a hammer pin pushes the wire segments into the forming die and delivers a coning blow which partially forms and partially bonds the segments in the forming die. The cutter bar then returns to theiirst position to receive additional face-forming material, and an additional blow is imparted to the partiallyformed contact by a punch. .The finished contact is then I ejected by a movable element in the shank portion of the formingdie. v

The operation of this assembly is sufficiently fast to provide nascent surfaces which form good metallurgical bonds without special cleaning procedures and without ilash' formation which must betrimmed at a later stage'However, the operation of such a device is not without difficulties and limitations.

For example, a machine-built to fabricate bimetallic contacts could only with great difficulty be adapted to produce trimetallic contacts. Further, there is no way of controlling the coned contactshape. More important, the contact face to shank diameter ratio which can be produced'in such a machine is severely limited, as is the shank length to face thickness ratio. Most important, however, is the fact that any reciprocating assembly, such as that described above, can only handle one contact at a time, and the rate at which it can operate is thus limited. 7

OBJECTS or THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide an improved'and economic method for'forming composite electrical contact elements by a cold bonding process, which method is suitable for high volume production. 1

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a cold bonding method which results in the formation of composite contact elements exhibiting markedly greater shear strengths and having face portions of substantially uniform thickness, as compared with composite contact elements produced by heretofore known cold heading procedures.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a progressive, rotating tool assembly for rapidly andefficiently forming composite contact elements with a minimum of manual manipulations. Q

ratios are not limited as in prior art devicesl Still another object of the present'invention is to provide an improved appaiatus for the rapid and efficient manufacture of composite electrical contact elements, which is readily capable of producing contacts at the rate of 600- 800 per minute or higher. '1

Yet an additional object of the present invention is to providea 'relatively simple method and apparatus for forming composite electrical contact elements, which does not suffer from 'the inherent limitations of a reciprocating device.

various other objects and advantages of the invention will become clear from the following description of the method and apparatus of the invention, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in connection with the appended claims.

. SUMMARY or THE INVENTION In essence, the method of the invention involves the steps rapidly shearing the desired number of segments from wire stock in end-to-end relation in a wire-receiving bore, rapidly moving the cut segments into a die cavity and delivering thereto a first coning blow to partially bond and form the contact, and'thereafter delivering at'least two heading blows to complete the bond and form the contact to the desired configuration. These steps are'basically-similar to those described in aforementioned US. Pat, No. 3,311,965, except that there is herein no limit on the-number of wire segments em- 'ployed, andthe number of heading blows is at least two, rather than onekliowever, in the present ihvention, the steps are carried out in a substantially different manner, in a fundamentally different kind of machine. In a preferredembodiment of the invention, more'over,'the initial coning blow is in fact a double blow, which has substantial advantagesfAs aresult, of these improvements, a much broader variety of contacts can be produced and production rates are substantially improved.

Composite electrical contacteierne'ntsexhibiting superior shear strengths and including integral-contact body and working face portions, which,faceportions have substantially uniform thicknesses, are produced by progressively shearing longitudinally elongatedv components for forming the contact several additional forming or heading blows endwise thereof to apply a further axial pressure thereto, the continued pres sures simultaneously effecting expansion of the abutting, initially bonded ends'of the contact body and face portion componentsin'to the ultimate shape of the desired composite conta 1 "The resulting element is thereafter removed from the die in which it is finally formed and, in the machine hereinafter described, the sequential shearing and forming operations can be rapidly repeated to produce 600 orv more composite contact elements per minute.

"it has been found that, by subjecting the abutting contact components to two or three forming or heading blows of the iiidicatedinagnitude within a very period after shearing the same'from stock material, vizj, within no more than about one secondand preferably from'ab out 0.01 to 0.5 second, markedly "superior composite contact elements may be i used than heretofore obtained by cold heading and/or bonding operations. Moreover, the present method may be carried out without initially cleaning the component members to be bonded, and without producing any flash or other waste material which must be removed from the composite element produced. The initial and subsequent forming blows should exert at least one ton per square inch pressure on the workpieces, and preferably 20-l50 tons per square inch.

The method of the invention has been found useful in the manufacture of both composite rivet and screw contacts, in a wide range of sizes. Rivet contacts produced employing the method of the present invention may, for example, have shanks varying from about 0.020 to 0.312 inch in diameter and heads varying from about 0.030 to 1.00 inch in diameter. Moreover, the rivet heads thus produced may vary from about 0.02 to 0.156 inch in thickness and may include facingportions having substantially uniform thicknesses varying from about 0.005 inch to percent of the overall head thickness, preferably from about;0.005 to 0.125 inch. in contrast thereto, commercially available composite rivet contacts produced in accordance with .the methods described in the aforesaid Zysk et a1. and Cooney patents have only been produced in sizes having head diameters of 0.156 to 0.250 inch, head thickness of 0.030 to 0.045 inch, shank diameters of 0.070 to 0.093 inch, and facing metal thicknesses varying only from 0.006 to 0.015 inch.

The working face of the composite contacts produced in accordance herewith is desirably sheared from a precious or semiprecious ductile stock material, e.g. wire stock. Such component may, as known in the art, be constituted of gold, silver, platinum or palladium, alloys of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, ruthenium or iridium, or ductile mixtures of such materials in admixture with,'for example, one or more of the following:v nickel, cobalt, copper, carbon, iron, lead, zinc, cadmium, cadmium oxide, tungsten, molybdenum or rhenium. The last-named mixtures should have ductilities ranging from about 25,000 to 85,000, preferably from 30,000 to 60,000 psi, Mixtures so useful. include, for example, percent silver-l5 percent nickel, percent silver-10 percent iron, 97 percent silver-3 percent carbon, 88 percent silver-12 percent cadmium oxide, and 75 percent silver-25 percent tungsten,

The component which, in accordance with the invention, is cold bonded automatically to for m the body portion of each of the desired composite contact elements is, like the first-mentioned component desirably in the form of a wire element. Such component may be constituted of any suitable ductile contact body material such as copper, a copper alloy, nickel, iron, an iron alloy or aluminum. Preferably, copper and copper alloys, e.g., commercial bronze (90 percent copper-10 percent zinc), naval brass or any of the more commonly known high brasses containing more than 50 percent copper, are so utilized.

/ The two components to be bonded are aligned in end-toend abutting relation and, within nomore than about one second and preferably from about 0.01 to 0.5 second, after shearing such components from wire or other stock material, are subjected to a first forming blow sufficient to produce interfacial 'molecular bonding therebetween. It has beenfound that components thus bonded need not be cleaned prior to cold heading and will, nevertheless, with two or three additional forming blows, be integrated into a single composite contact element possessing shear strengths greater than heretofore obtained by cold heading of wire slugs which have been separately manipulated and/or cleaned prior to cold heading, orwhich have been subjected to only a single forming or heading blow.

The firstforming blow isapplied endwise of the abutting;

contact components and isof sufficient magnitude to impart an axial pressure of at least 1 ton per square inch, and

each such component. Preferably, the magnitude of the first embodimentof the invention;

forming blow and the dimensionsofthefofihing die in which mutual' expansion of the abutting ends of the contact components'is' effected are so regulated that the components'are expanded from about 2 to 4 times their initialdiametcr to 6 DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows the several steps of themethod of an embodiment of the present invention sequentially, progressing from right to left. the consecutive steps being generally designated stations A through G inclusive.

As is shown in FIG. 1, a cutoff die is designated generally by the numeral and is one of four identical cutoff dies mounted in a revolving die holder (not shown in FIG. 1). Cutoff die 20 has four material workingstations 21, 22, 23 and 24, corresponding to method steps A,"B, C and D respectively.

. Movement of cutoff die 20 from working station 21 through than fivefold increase in the shear strength of the resulting I composite element, as compared with elements produced employing only a single forming blow asdescribed hereinabove. Moreover, it has been found that the .use of an additionalforrning blow or blows produces markedly more uniformcontact working face thicknessesthan can be provided employing only asingle forming blow as aforesaid. I

The apparatus of 'theinvention comprises, g'enerally,'.a

rotating wire holder. having a plurality,of'wire-receiving bores (referred to hereinafter as a revolving cutoff die holder and as the upper dial plate) and arotating' headerdie having a pluralityof die cavities (also referred-teas 'the lower dial plate),

these two rotating memberslhaving a single common position where, with each increment of ,rotation, a wire-receiving bore is in axial registration with 'a die cavity. These two members are each driven byia'n indexing drive, and aremounted onthe bed of a high speed press. Wire feed and punch elements are fixedly mounted on the reciprocating rain of the press.

Witheach stroke of the ram, the following operations all take place in apreferred embodiment: (1) a segment of contact body metal is fed into one wire receiving bore and sheared off; (2) a segment of contact face metal is fed into a second wire receiving bore, on top of a previously-cut segment of contact body metal, and is sheared off; (3) in'athird wire receiving bore, a hammer pushes two previously-cut wire segments into a die cavity and administers a double coning blow; (4.)

heading blows are delivered to partially formed contacts in at least two die cavities: and :(5) a finished contact is ejected from another die cavity. Between ram strokes the indexing drives move the rotating wire holder and 'the'frotating header die a fixed increment, advancing each wire-receiving bore and each die cavity to thenexft step-of the process.

; Tina DRAWINGS A more complete understanding of the method and apparatus of the present invention may jbe"had.from the following detailed description thereof when consideredin conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional, schematic elevation illustrating the steps of the method of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A-C are cross-sectional elevations of three composite contactsafter the initial coning step of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional elevation of il '-COIIIPOSlI contact after the final heading step of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a planview illustrating the upper and lower dial plate assemblies of a'preferred embodiment of-the invention; it along line 5-5 FIG. 5A is a cross-sectional elevation take of FIG. 4 and FIG. 5B is a detail view thereof? FIG. 6 is a plan view illustrating t'he position'of theIv'arious 1 punches and the ejector camon the ram of the press;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the shear assembly of apreferred FOG. 8fis a cross-sectional elevation taken along line 8-8 of a cross-sectionalelevation along line 9 9of 1 24 and then back to'station 21 corresponds to a complete rotation of the revolving die holder in which the cutoff dies are mounted. The relationship of the cutoff diestructure to the overall contact formingapparatus which -can perform the method of the present invention will be discussed in detail hereinafter. Q

The cutoff die 20, as shownforpurpos'es of illustration,

comprises a generally cylindrical'member 30 having a first bore 31 extending axially from one end 32 substantially half the length of member 30, and a second bore 33,.smaller than bore 31, and extending axiallyfromthe other end 34 of member 30 to bore 31. The one end 32 of member-30 is provided with external screw threads for receiving a cap 35 thereon. Cap 35 has a cylindrical wall portion 36 and one end wall portion 37. The inner surface of cylindrical wall portion 36 isthreaded for engagement with the threaded end 32 of member 30. Further, end wall portion 37 of cap 35' is provided with a centrally disposed, longitudinally extending hole 38 for receiving -a cam follower shaft as will be hereinafter described.

A material positioning member 40 is located within the cylindrical member 30. The material positioning-member 40 generally comprises a cylindrical shaft-41 having a cam, follower end 42, a material positioning end .43, and a piston 44 mounted substantially centrally on shaft 41 separating the material positioning end '43 from the cam follower end 42.-

Piston 44 is of such a diameter as to fit slidably but snugly within bore 31. Cam follower end 42 fits'slidably through hole '38 in cap 35, and materialpositioning end. 43 of shaft 41 fits slidably but snugly .within bore 33.

A coil spring 46 is mounted within bore 31 coaxially with and surroundingmaterialpositioning end- 43 of shaft 41. The upper end of spring 46 bears upon the undersurface 47 of piston 44, and the lower end of spring 46 bears upon the bottom wall 48 of bore 31. Spring 46 is normallyin compression and thus bears upon piston 44 to urge shaft 41 upwardly into engagement with a cam 50 suitably positioned axially above member 30. Engagement of the cam follower end 42 of shaft 41 with cam 50 thus determines the longitudinal axial position of material positioning member 40 within cylindrical member 30.

When cutoff die 20 is in either station 21 or 22, its lower surface 34 is in face-to-face sliding engagementwith the upper surface of a shear block-55. Shear block 55 has bores 56 and 57 which are positioned so that bore 56 is coaxially aligned with bore 33 of member 30 when die 20 is in station 21, and so that bore 57 is coaxially aligned with bore 33 of member 30 when die 20 is in station 22.

control the vertical position of material positioning member 41 in member 30. At station 21, the cam member 50 displaces the material positioning member 41 downwardly for almost the full length of member 30, thus filling a majorportion of I bore 33. At station 22, the cam 50 allows the'spring 46 to force positioning member 31 upwardly thus opening an addi- FIG. 4 illustrating the ejector mechanisrnof a' preferred em- I tional' length of bore 33. Since cam 50- does not extend over stations 23 and 24, there is no external restriction to the vertical movement of positioning member '41 and thus spring 46 forces piston 44 against the underside of cap 35. In the embodiment-of. FIG. 1, thedesired contact is bimetallic, and no function is performed at station 23 ,(step C).' It will be understood, however, that a third wire segment could be fed into awire-receiving bore at this point.

; At station 24, cutofi die is in coaxial alignment with header die designated generally by numeral 60 which also is mounted in arevolving die holder (not shown) and, similar to cutoff die 20, isalso one of four identical header dies mounted i'n'the revolving die holder. Header die 60 has four material working 'stations 61, 62, 63 and'64 corresponding to method steps D; E, F and G respectively. Movement of header die 60 from working station 61 through 64 andthen back tostation I 61 corresponds to a complete rotation of the revolving die holder in which the header dies are mounted. The complete relationship of the header die structure'to an overall contact forming apparatus for performingthe method of the present invention will be discussed in detail hereinafter. 'i jTh'e header die 60, as shown for purposes of illustration, comprises a generally cylindrical die body .71 having a longitu- (final, axially extending contact head forming bore 73 in its top end, a longitudinally extending limit plunger bore 74 at its bot- "tom end coaxial with the head forming bore 73, and a contact steni forming bore 75 extending longitudinally axially within die body 71 from bore 73 to bore 74 and coaxially therewith. A'limit plunger 72 comprising a lower cylindrical portion 76 and an upper cylindrical portion 77 isslidably mounted within die body 71. The diameter of lower cylindrical portion 76 is "slightly smaller than bore 74 so as to allow 'snug sliding en- ,g'a'gement'tlierebetween. The upper'cylindrical portion 77of plunger 72 is of 'a diameter to fit snugly and slidably within bore" 75. As can be seen from FIG. 1, cylindrical portions 76 and 77off plunger 72 are connected by a beveled portion 78 which conforms to a corresponding beveled portion 79 which extends between bores 74 and 75 of plunger 72. {In the illustrated embodiment, as header die60, is moved from station 61 to,station 64 in the contact forming process, pit nger'72 is movedprog'ressively inwardly of die 71. As plunger 72 ismoved inwardly, upper cylindrical portion77 thereof occupies progressively more of the volume of bore 75 thus shortening the depth of the stern. portion of the contact forming chamber in die 71. By control-lingthe movement of plunger 72 between the several forming steps, the ratio between shank length and head thickness, and the ratio between shank dia'meter and head diameter, can be effectively centrolled; heretofore this has not beenpossible.

\ Over station 24 of cutoff die 20 which corresponds and is in alignment with station 61 of header die-61) there is provided a forming or coning hammer 65 which is positioned to deliver a longitudinallydirected axial blowto the cam follower end of material positioning member for purposes to be hereinafter describedfisimilarly, there is provided above header die 60 in each of stations 62, 63 and 64, heading punches 66, 67 and 68 respectivelyLTh'e headingpunches are mounted by means to be more fully described for vertical reciprocation over the header die 60.-The forming punches 66, 67," 68 are provided with concave lower surfaces 80, 8l and'82,'respectively, the degree of concavityincreasing from surface 80 through surface82 so'as to progressively form the contacting face of the contact to thede'sired configuration. Of course, other configurations can beern'ployed as desired.

Considering now the individual steps A through G of the method ofthe present invention, and referring specifically to step A, a wire ,14 of material suitable for use as a working contact surface, for example,silver, is forced or fed by a suitable means (not shown) through the bore 56 of shear block 55 into cutoff-die bore '33 until it abuts the end of'material positioning stern 43. his to be noted that'the amount'of contact surface material-admitted to bore 33 is dictated by.the position of st'erri- 43:fwhich in turn is dictated by the position of cam 50. Thusjfde'pending upon the particular size and type of contact to be formed, stem 43 will be positioned in bore 33 to define a volume equal to the volume of contact surface material desited, When wire 14, is fully inserted into bore 33, cutoff die 20 is'fr'otated'with the revolving die holder (not shown in FIG. 1 across shear block 55 thus cutting wire 14 at the interface 34 of cutoff die 20 and shear block 55. At station B, a second wire 15 of suitable material'forlfo rming the body portion of a contact, such as copper, is forced or fed bya suitable means (not shown in FIG. 1) through the bore 57of shear block 55 into cutoff die bore 33 so as to abut the previously cut length of silver 14 and advance the length of silver further inwardly of the bore until it comes into engagement for a second time with stem 43. As is evident from FIG. 1, stem 43 is displaced vertically by the action of spring 46 against piston 44 since the contour of cam 50 allows upward vertical movement of shaft 41 as cutoff die 20 moves from station A tostation B. The

amount of contact body material admitted to bore 33 is determined by the amount of vertical displacement of shaft 41 and may be varied as required by the characteristics of the contact to be manufactured;

Upon complete insertion of body material-wire 15 into cutoff die bore 33, cutoff die 20 is rotated with the revolving die holder (not shown in FIG. 1) across shear block 55, thus plished. In the preferred apparatus described hereinbelow, for I example, thepositions of stations C and D are reversed.

At station D of cutoff die 20, which is directly over and corresponds to station 61 of header die 60, shaft 41 is subjected to a blow from a coning hammer 65, which displaces shaft 41 downwardly against theforce of spring 46 and forces the contact forming material elements from bore 33 of cutoff die 20 into the head forming bore 73 and stem forming bore 75 of header die '60. The passage of material into the bores of header die 60 is limited by the position ofthe upper cylindrical portion 77of the limit plunger 72. Theforce of the blow from forming hammer 65 through. shaft 41 is such as tonot only eject the contact forming components from bore 33, but also to deform and simultaneously cold bond them together as they are forced against the confining inner walls of bores 73 and 75 of header die 60.

The actual shape of three coned rivets from stage D are shown in F IGS 2A, 2B and 2C. The difference between FIG. 2A and 2B is essentially only in thfiljelative amount of silver 14 and copper 15 provided at cutoff stations A and B. The coned shape in FIG. 2C is the result of a double coning blow,

and is the general shape produced in the preferred apparatus v of the invention described hereinbelow-The limiting amount of deformation that can be accomplished with the device illustrated is controlled by the downward coning pressure which must be applied through the relatively small diameter of shaft 43. The pressure of shaft 43 is the only pressure applied if, as is in some instances is desired, shaft 77 on punch 72 is held stationary. In other instances, and in particular the embodiment of FIG. 2C, the force of coning hammer 43 is augmented by a blow from an annular bushing, as hereinafter described.

After the initial coning blow, headerdie 60 is rotated from station 61 through station 64. At each successive station, limit plunger 72 may be moved upwardly inldie 60 toward the final position in station 64 which corresponds to the desired stem depth of contact 17. At each station, i.e. stations 62, .63 and 64, the contact 17 'is subjected to a forming blow, from punches 66, 67 and 68 respectively. These forming blows cold form the contact into the final configuration desired as well as bonding the face and body materials so as to obtain a strong intermolecular bond therebetween.

One of the important features of the instant invention is; the ability to produce contacts having a completely even distribution of silver across the contact; this cannot be done on con-. ventional cold heading equipment; Thus, after the initial'coning operation (station D) the copper-silver interface is bowed or in some instances almost semicircular, as shown in FIG. 2.

After successive forming blows'at stations E, F, and G, how

- slightly curved (FIG. 3) or be .illustrate the method of the invention, with'a general indicasubstantially rounded, as shown in FIG. 1. 1 3

The entire manufacturing process foreach contact should preferably take no longer than 0.3 seconds so as to achieve a production of at least 180 contacts a minute. Preferably, both from a production standpoint and from a bonding efficiency standpoint, the entire forming process should be completed in approximately 0.1-seconds per contact;

While the configuration of the silver-copper interface is of course important, it is the quality of the bond between the two materials which is. determinative of contact quality. A significant aspect of the present invention is the improvement in bond quality which takes place betweenstations E and G. By measurement on cross-sectioned and delarhinated contacts, it has been determined that the bonded area'bet ween the copper and silver is approximately 80 percent of the interface area afterone heading operation, but isincreased to over 98 percent after three blowsThese observations were confirmed by .two types of delamination tests. In the first test, rivet heads (fine silver, commercial purity copper) were squeezed'in a vise until delamination started, and reduction in area was measured. Rivets that had only one heading blow withstood only 63.5 percent of the deformation that rivets receiving-three blows withstood. With the fine-silver replaced by 90 percent Ag, percent CdO, rivets receiving three heading blows withstood twice the deformation.

In the second test, a sharp chisel was :placed on the peripheral edge of the rivet head at the interface, and itwas hit with a 3 pound hammer swung through a l-foot arc. Out of 12 rivets of each kind, the number which could withstand 1.0 such blows was recorded. With copper-fine silver rivets, single headed rivets were 57.2 percent as strong as triple headed ones, and-with copper, 90 percent Ag, 10 percent CdO rivets, the figure was 37.5 percent.

Other advantages which come with increased bond strength are manifest: there is less bimetallic separational action under arcing or severeservice conditions, and ,there is less voltage drop across the interfacial bond.

As shown in FIG. 1, no function is performed at station C, and at station G the last heading blow is received followed by withdrawal of punch 68 and ejection of the finished contact. The latter may be accomplished by upward movement of piston 76, which raises the rivet, in combination with a mechanicalwiper'or compressed air. It would be possible, of course, to have only three positions on the cutoff die and run it at a different speed than the header die, but there are certain timing advantages in the illustrated arrangement.

The foregoing description-of FIG. '1 is intended primarily to 7 tion of the means with which it can be carried out.

FIGS. 4-9 illustrate a preferred embodiment of a machine for carrying out the method of the invention. The machine comprises two main assemblies: a die assembly including all rotating parts, illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, and a punch assembly, illustrated in FIG. 6; The die assembly is rigidly attached to the bed or bolster of a conventional high speed press and the punchassembly is rigidly attached to the ram of said press. All moving parts are contained in the die assembly.

The die assembly is illustrated in FIG. 4. The initial stages of the process are carried out with a rotatingupper dial plate 100 having a copper wire shearing station 102, a silver wire shearing station 104 and a coning punch statio'ng106. The general outline of the shear assembly (FIGS. 7 and :8) is shown at 107. No function is performed at station 108.: Upper dial plate 100 is driven by a central shaft 110 extending. downwardly through the bed of the press to a'heavy duty indexing drive (not shaft 110 is retained in bridge assembly 112', which is posiv tiorned so as not to interfere with any of the working stations. An independently driven cam 114 drives the 'shear'assembly discussed hereinbelow in connection with FIGS. 7 and 8.

Station 106 is common to both upper dial plate and-the lower dial plate 116. Lower dial plate 116, in addition to coning station 106, has heading stations 118 and 120, and ejection station 122. Lower dial plate 116 is' mounted in a similar fashion to upper dial plate 100, i.e., adownwardly extending central shaft is driven by a second, heavy duty indexing drive, and the upper end of this shaft is retained in a bridge assembly 124. Bridge assembly 124 has an orifice 126 for passage of the first heading punch and a cutout area 128 to facilitate ejection of finished contacts. The contact ejector is indicated generally at 130, but is more completely described below in connection with FIG. 9. The whole die assembly is retained on a support-' ing plate 134 bolted to the bed of the press.

The relative positions of upper and lowerdial plates 100, 116 are more clearly shown in FIG. 5A..Upper dial plate 100 is mounted for rotation on its shaft and lower dial plate 116 is mounted on its shaft 117. The press bolster or bed is indicated at 132. As noted above, the entire die assembly is mounted on a support plate 134 bolted to bed 132, and a support blOCl( 135 and bearing plate 7 136 provide support for upper dial plate 100. Block 134 and wear plate 138 provide support for lower dial plate 116.

Upper dial plate 100 is provided with 'fdur circular openings 140, one at each of stations 102- 108, respectively. The structure at each station is identical, and that at station 106 is illustrated in section in FIG. 5B. A lower disc 142 and a bushing retainer 144, the latter passing through opening 140, form an enclosure for a cutoff bushing 146. Bushing 146 has a central wire-receiving bore 147 therein. Screws 150 hold the entire assembly together. Asshown in FIG. 5B, bushing 146 is at its lower position, being'pressed-by the coning punch (described below), but-it is ordinarily retained at its upper or raised posi tion'by a plurality of belleville washers 148 which act-as a spring, biasing bushing 146 in the raised position. In the upper -or raised position, the top of bushing 146 extends slightly 144, as shown at tion about shaft 154 on a suitable supporting'block 156. Arm

152 has two bushings 158, 160, each-having-a bore 162 therein. Bushings 158 and 160 are positioned so thatbores 162 are in exact registry with the bore 147 of the upper dial plate assembly at stations I02 and 104, respectively. Arm 152 hasattached at one side a cam follower 164 which follows cam 114 (FIG. 4). Two spring-biased plungers 166, 168 attached to an arm 170 (also mounted on support l56)'retain arm 152 in the exact registry position except when the assembly is actuated by cam 114. A wire-guiding tube 172 and tube retainer 174 are provided to guide copper and silver wire into bores 162 of bushings 158, 160. It is thus the cam-actuated motion.

of arm 152 which provides the wire shearing force, rather than the rotation of upper dial plate 100.

The foregoing has described the structure of the upper dial plate and associated shear assembly. Attention will now be directed to the punch assembly, illustrated generally in FIG. 6.

The ram 176 of the press has attached thereto a punch supporting plate 178, which has the following elementson its lower surface: coning punch 180, first heading punch 182, second heading punch 184 and ejector earn 186. These four elements are positioned for exact registry with station 106, 118, 120 and 122 (FIG. 4), respectively. The punches themselves are each mounted on identical punch retainers 188 fastened to a slide block 190 so as to permit fine adjustment of the punch position. It will be understood that either the punch assembly or the die assembly is provided with four guide bars which slide within corresponding bores in the other assembly, so that registration is assured with each ram stroke. This is a common expedient and is not illustrated. The structure of the individual punches is more clearly shown in FIG. 5, and

reference is again made theretoTconing punch 180 is illustrated. The "relativepositions of punch 180, punch retainer 188 and slide "block 190' are clear from the drawing. Fine adjustment is made by means of set screw 192. Coning punch 180 consistsfof twooperative parts: a push-rod 194 and an annular ram 196. Rod 194 extends substantially beyond the face of ram 196 and, inoperation 'extendsinto bore 147 of cutoff bushing 146, as described more fully below. The construction of heading punches 182 and 184 (FIG-6) is similar to that of coning punch 180, but they have no central push rod and may be provided with an indentation so as to form the top surface of the contact to a desired configuration. The cross section of punch 184is illustrated at 198 in FIG. 5A.

As can be seen from FIGS. 4 and S, the structure of lower dial plate 116 is similar to upper dial plate- 100; it is essentially a round plate with four circular openings. The die cavity assembly in each of these openings is more clearly illustrated in FIG. 9, which also shows ejector mechanism 130, and

reference is directed thereto.

' A liner 200 is fitted into each opening in lower dial plate 116, and a die cavity bushing 202 having a central bore204 is slidably engaged therein. The diameter of bore 204 determines the head diameter of the contacts. A sleeve 206 having a central bore-208 slidably fits into bore 204. The size of bore 208'determines the shank diameter of the contacts, and its thickness determines the contact'shoulder size. Sleeve 206 has an annular shoulder 210 at its lower end, shoulder 210 serving to support a plurality of belleville washers 212 and form a spring which presses against the lower-side of die cavity bushing 202. The whole assembly is retained in position by spring retainer cup 214 and the latter is clamped to the underside of lower dial plate1l6 by annular clamp 2'l6'and screws 218. The bottom of spring retainer cup 214 has a' central opening 215 coaxial to bore 208 of sleeve 206, but of slightly larger diameter. An ejector pin 218 fits slidably in bore 208 andhas a shoulder 220 at its lower end which fits'sliclably in opening 215.'During rotation of lower dial plate 116, the bottom of spring retainer cup 214 and the bottom of ejector pin 218 slide on wear'plate 138. The relative height of ejector pin 218 in bore 208 determines the lengthof the shank of the contact. The foregoing die cavity structure is identical at each of stations 106, 118, 120 and 122 of lower dial plate 116.

l Contact ejection takes place at station 122, and the ejector mechanism is also illustrated in FIG. 11. At station 122, a bore 222 in wear plate 138 is in exact registry with opening 215 in spring retainer cup 214. With each stroke of the ram, an ejector cam'224 on the punch assembly (indicated generally at 17.8 in FIG. 6) engages a cam follower 226 mounted on the upwardlyextending end 228 of a rocker'arrn 230. Rocker arm 230 is'mounted for movement on a pivot 232 in a pivot block 234 set in support 134. The opposite end 236 of rocker arm 230 engages a plunger 238 mounted in a'bore 240 coaxial with bb'r'e 222in' wear plate 138. Plunger 238 has an extension 242 at its upper end which ordinarily slidably fits in bore 222 but, upon actuation of rocker arm 230 by cam 224, extension 242 is raised'into opening 215, which in turn lifts ejector pin 218.

The operation of the machine may be described as follows. Reels of copper and silver wire are mounted on or near the top of 'the'press. Two friction-gripping wire feeders (not shown) are mounted on the side of the ram and are set to feed a predetermined length of wire with each ram stroke. Such devices are common in the art. Copper wire is fed through tube 172 into the bore 162 of bushing 158 at station 102. With a stroke of the ram, a precise quantity thereof passes into bore 1470f cutoff bushing 146. Cam 114 then moves arm' 152, shearing off the copper wire. Ninety degrees of rotation of upper dial plate 100 brings the copper wire-filled bore to station 104, directly under bushing 160. Aprecise quantity of silverwire is then fed into the same bore 147, pushing the copper wire. further thereinto. Again, movement of arm 152 by cam l14 shears the silver wire. 7

"A further 90v 90 rotation bringsthe wire filled bore to station 106, as shown in FIG. 5. Withthedownward stroke of the ram, push-rod 194 enters bore 1 47 and pushes the wire segments downwardly, first into bore 204 and then into bore 208. The downward pushing continues, and when the bottom of the copper segment meets the top of ejectorpin 218, deformation 2 results in the coned contact shape illustrated in -F IG. 2C. With} upward movement of the ram, spring 148 forces bushing 146 back to its normal position. Upper dial plate 100 will then rotate l80 (in two 90 increments) back to station 102 where additional wire is fed. It will of course be understood that the two shear steps and the coning step take place with each 90 rotation of upper dial plate 100.

It has been determined that the double or two-phase coning blow imparted by push-rod 196 and the bottom face of annular bushing 146 is substantially superior to the single blow heretofore employed. The two-phase coning blow covers more area than a single blow, and thus produces a better initial bond. In conventional devices, as the wire segments deform into the die cavity and the push-rod enters thereinto, it tends to push into the face-forming metal and leave a rather deep depression. This results in an uneven distribution of faceforming metal which a subsequent heading blow or blows can not correct. In the instant invention, push rod 196 moves to the upper edge of, but not into, die cavity bore 204; the lower end of bushing 146 does move slightly into bore 204, however, resulting in a coned contact as shown in FIG. 2C. Subsequent heading blows produce the contact shape shown in FIG. 3.

The coned contact receives a heading blow from punches 182 and 184 at each of stations 118 and120. The last heading blow is illustrated in FIG. 5 where the tip 198 of punch 184 is shown contacting the contact and slightly depressing springbiased bushing 202. At this point the contact is finished-A further 90 of rotation brings the finished contact to ejection station 122. w

With the next stroke of the ram, cam 224 on the punch assembly actuates rocker arm 230, plunger 238 liftsejector pin 218, and the contact is ejected from the die cavity. It is desirable to have a source of compressed airor the like (not shown) at this point to blow the finished contact into a tube orchute for conveyance to a suitable receptacle. t

It will be noted that the upper and lower'dial plates may rotate inthe same or opposite directions, but is convenient to have them rotating in the same direction for ease in synchronizing the respective indexing drives. The drives for the two dial plates of the machine illustrated in FIGS. 4-9 are identical in size and function. An alternative embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 10. In this embodiment, the upper dial plate 250 has only three stations, a first wire shear station 252, second wire shear station 254, and coning station 256. The indexing drive therefor rotates plate 250 at a time. Lower dial plate 258, on the other hand, has f ve stations: common coning station 256, three heading stations 260, 262 and 264, and an ejection station 266. The indexing drive for this plate rotates only 72 between stops. While this embodiment requires more elaborate equipment to insure exact registration at station 256, it has the advantages of providing three,

heading blows and faster transport of the sheared wire to con ing station 256.

As noted hereinabove, the apparatus as described has facilities for the feeding of three wire segments rather than two and, with obvious modifications, could handle even more seg ments. Production of trimeta llic contacts, for example silvercopper silver, is advantageous in that, when the rivet is placed in an aperture in a supportand the shank portion is deformed to produce a second contact face, both face portions will be I silver with the body portion being copper. Of course, other,

metals and alloys can also be used.

nature of the invention, may be made by those skilled in the art within the principle and scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

l claim: ll. Apparatus for forming cold bonded composite electrical contacts from wire stock comprising:

a rotatable wire holder having a plurality of wire receiving bores therein; means for inserting a length of a first metal wire into one of said bores and shearing the same from said stock; means for inserting a length of a second metal wire into said one bore in end-to-end relation with said first metal wire length and shearing the same from said wire stock; a rotatable header die holder having a plurality of header die cavities; said wire holder and said header die holder being rotatable about spaced, parallel axes, said wire holder being above and partially over said header die holder so that said bores may come into axial registration with said cavities;

means for transferring said metal lengths from said one bore into said one cavity and delivering an axial coning blow thereto, said means comprising at least three cutoff bushings having said wire-receiving bores therein in said rotatable wire holder, said bushings being axially moveable into said die cavity at said third position; push-rod means coaxial to said wire receiving bore at said third position and moveable thereinto; and ram means annular to said push rod means and capable of moving said cutoff bushing into said die cavity;

means for delivering at least two axial heading blows to the coned lengths in said one cavity;

means for removing a finished contact from said one cavity;

and

drive means for rotating said wire holder and said header die holder in successive increments, a wire receiving bore and a header die cavity being in axial registration with each said increment of rotation.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein both said shearing means comprise:

a rotatable shearing arm having a pair of apertures therethrough;

Wire-feeding means for feeding said first metal wire through said first aperture and said second metal wire through said second aperture;

said rotatable wire holder having at least three wire-receiving bores therein on the surface adjacent said shearing arm, each said bore being spaced for coaxial, wire-shearing registration with said first aperture at a first position and, upon a first rotation of said wire holder, coaxial, wire-shearing registration with said second aperture at a second position and, upon a second rotation of said wire holder, coaxial registration with said one die cavity at a third position; and

means for partially rotating said shearing arm about an axis equidistant from said first and second position, whereby wire fed through said apertures into bores at both said first and second positions is simultaneously sheared upon rotation of said arm.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cutoff bushings are spring-biased away from said die cavity.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said head ing means comprise at least two axially moveable punches located coaxially of a header die cavity at incremental rotational positions away from the point of registration of said header die cavity and said wire-receiving bore.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said contact removal means comprises:

ejector pin means communicating with said die cavity in each of the die cavities of said header die holder; and axially moveable plunger means coaxial with said ejection pin means one incremental rotational position away from the last of said axially moveable punches, said plunger upon axial movement moving said ejector pin means into said die cavit 6. Apparatus i or continuously forming in a press cold bonded composite electrical contacts from wire stock comprising:

a die assembly attachable to the bed of said press;

a punch assembly attachable to the reciprocating ram of said press;

said die assembly comprising:

a rotatable upper dial plate having at least three wire receiving bores spaced for rotation to first, second and third positions;

a rotatable lower dial plate having at least three die cavities spaced for rotation to a plurality of positions, one of said positions being coaxial with and directly below the third position of said upper dial plate;

a wire shearing arm rotatable about an axis equidistant from the first and second positions of said upper dial plate, said arm having a first aperture coaxial to and above said wire receiving bore at said first position and a second aperture coaxial to and above said wire receiving bore at said second position, said apertures being in slidable, wire-shearing engagement with the upper surface ofsaid upper dial plate;

ejector means capable of removing contacts from said die cavities at the position of said lower dial plate just prior to said coaxial position; and

indexing drive means for rotating said upper and lower dial plates to said respective positions;

said punch assembly comprising:

a coning punch coaxial with and moveable into said wire receiving bore at said third position of said upper dial plate, said coning punch acting to push wire in said bore into said die cavity and deliver a coning blow thereto;

a header punch coaxial to said die cavities at each of the rotational positions of said lower dial plate intermediate said coaxial position and said ejector position; and

ejector actuating means capable of actuating said ejector means with each stroke of said ram; and

wire feeding means attached to said ram and capable of feeding, with each stroke of said ram, a predetermined quantity of wire through each of said first and second apertures of said arm and into wire receiving bores at said first and second positions.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said upper dial plate contains four wire receiving bores spaced from each other, said first, second and third positions are also 90 apart, and said indexing drive means rotates said upper dial plate in successive increments of 90, whereby each of said bores is rotated successively to said first, second and third positions, and then to a fourth position.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said lower dial plate contains four die cavities spaced 90 from each other, there are four rotational positions of said lower dial plate also 90 apart, and said indexing drive means rotates said lower dial plate in successive increments of 90, whereby each of said die cavities is rotated successively from said coaxial position to two intermediate heading positions and then to said ejector position.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein each of said wire receiving bores is contained in a cutoff bushing, said bushing being moveable against a spring into said die cavity at said third position; and said coning punch comprises a push rod coaxial to and moveable into said wire receiving bore and an annular ram moveable against the top surface of said bushmg.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said upper dial plate contains three equispaced wire receiving bores and said drive means rotates it in successive increments of said lower dial plate contains five equispaced die cavities and said drive means rotates it in successive increments of 72. 

